History - Logging In Bonner County
by Bob Gunter
Bob Selle has lived in this area since 1923. He was seven years of age when his family came to the Sandpoint area. His first experience in logging came when he was 13 and I asked him to share some of his memories and experiences. ,
(Here is Bob Selle's story and, when possible, is told in Bob's own words.)
In Sandpoint it was solid booms from Sandpoint to Kootenai Point. Humbird Lumber Company had an actual pier out in the lake. They built railroads up some of the big areas - Rapid Lightning and Grouse Creek - they had railroads way up there. And they just sent the easy stuff down to the railroad and brought it in. They backed the trainloads of logs out and dumped 'em in the lake. They had a lot of logs in the water.
The tugs, they'd drive Pack River, bring the logs down, catch 'em down here in the mouth and then they'd tow 'em into Sandpoint or whoever's logs they were. They had to sort 'em some place because they all got mixed in the drive, you see. Every company was putting in the river and then when the high water came and the logs started floating, then they had to bring 'em on down so they were marked. They had a chopped watermark on the side of the log and then they had a stamp on the end. If they couldn't see the stamp, they could take the pike pole - the guys working on the booms - and the sorting gaps - see they used to float 'em up to the gap and then they'd identify the logs and put 'em in this boom or this boom or this boom - and that would go to that particular mill.
Then they usually had a camp - on the bigger rivers, they always had camps - float camps, that came along behind for the men. They had a cookhouse and the whole thing. They called the cookhouse a "wantagain"
Q. Why was that?
Well, that was just the name they called it cause the one that used to come to Pack River, and the young people would go out and the cook would give 'em cake and stuff, you know - the wantagain, it'd be tied up out there. I never did work on a drive but I watched some big drives like on the Lewiston River and down at the Lewiston on the Clearwater River. I saw the logs go by here a lot through Sandpoint. They were always towing logs. And they used to whistle for the train bridges - they had to open the bridges to let them through. Their superstructure was too high to go under the bridge. They used to whistle for that. There were people that lived right there like on the Highway Bridge - the old wooden Wagon Bridge we called it - there was a family lived there that tended to that draw - they had to wind that one up by hand. You know, go round and round like a windlass - went right straight up to let 'em under. The Railroad Bridge swung open but it had motors but there was a railroad house right at the south end of the bridge where a family lived and took care of that.
One thing I remember, they used to have one tug boat, we called the Coyote cause it's whistle evidently had a disk in the barrel of the whistle and it'd go "whoooop", "whoooop", when it was whistling. And you'd hear 'em whistling for a long time to make sure they had it open for 'em when they got down to the bridge. So they had a lot of logs on the water - the tug boats.
Q. How many logs would you say were in a drive?
SELLE: On a drive? Oh, millions of feet, board feet, 'cause it'd be so big - now, like Priest River, there was a lot of logging went on up at Priest River. Just logged all winter - hauled 'em on sleighs and decked 'em. There was one place called Squaw Valley up there where they had a railroad up that valley. That's up close to Priest Lake, up at Coolin. And they called that the high landing. They had a landing that was way up high, way from the river and then when they dumped the logs in there, they'd roll down and then turn and then went down a shoot into the river. And that whole canyon would be full of logs just like that when high water came. Then they'd have to start prying 'em around and getting 'em to go.
To see more great old photos of Sandpoint and the surrounding areas :: Click Here ::
All photographs have been used with permission of the Bonner County Museum.
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